I came across this particular song many months ago while listening to a group called Crooked Still. “Calvary,” as it is titled, has remained one of my favorite songs of theirs since first hearing it. Digging further, though, I discovered that “Calvary” was not original to Crooked Still. Turns out that the song finds its origins in the mountains of Wise County, Virginia, through the pen and voice of Dock Boggs. In my opinion, Boggs’ rendition matches much more closely in mood to the crucifixion event of which it describes than Crooked Still’s version. In this song, Boggs typifies that ability to draw the listener in to the story and experience being told. Mountain music is music that is felt. And there is no greater truth to be felt than the redemptive work of Jesus Christ for sinners. The song really captures in words the bleakness and darkness surrounding the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The place of the crucifixion is characterized as “lone and grey.” Calvary is depicted as being “dark,” a stark contrast to the “blessed Lamb” lifted high upon it. Blackness slowly saturated the sky as “a darkness came down” while “the rocks went around.” Even the air is portrayed on an emotional level, being overburdened and “sad-laden.” “Death’s dark sting” pulsates through the veins of the Lamb of God.

Dark Calvary is that place where a man, namely Jesus, went “forth to die.” The lone, grey hill described is where he “suffered.” He was “faint on the road/’Neath the world’s heavy load” of sin and judgment. “He [was] bowed” under the weight of Rome’s preferred and chosen instrument of death. “But still on through the crowd” he walked, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb. 12:2). Still further revealing the experience of Jesus the lyrics explain: “How they mocked him in death/To his last laboring breath/While His friends sadly wept o'er the way/But though lonely and faint/Still no word of complaint/Fell from Him on that hillock of grey.” The repeated stanza throughout the song highlights the purpose of Jesus’ death within its last couplet: “Jesus suffered and died/To redeem a poor sinner like me.” Boggs seems to be echoing the words of the Apostle Paul here, for Paul writes, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am foremost” (1 Tim. 1:15). Jesus did not die for sinners “out there” but for me the poorest and foremost of sinners. Furthermore, Jesus’ “Received death's dark sting/All to save us from endless despair.” For those who believe in Jesus, he has on their behalf “received death’s dark sting;” he has swallowed up death in victory leading Paul to exclaim, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting” (see 1 Cor. 15:54-55)? Yet “endless despair” awaits those who choose to receive within themselves “death’s dark sting” of sin and its power, the unattainable requirement of perfect obedience to the law (see 1 Cor. 15:56). Finally, “Calvary” issues forth a call to remember the crucifixion of the blessed Lamb, and, by the internal work of the Spirit, to be genuinely moved by it. “Oh, it bowed down my heart/And the teardrops will start/When in memory all the grey hill I see.” Does the memory of the crucifixion bow down your heart? In other words, does it humble you down to the dust over which you tread; the dust of which you are made? Does the memory of the crucifixion elicit tears? Not tears of sorrow for that poor Galilean man, but tears of serious and solemn thankfulness. For we should have been on that tree, receiving the curse of God onward into eternity. But we have been redeemed by the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, that is, if we believe upon him and hold fast to our confession. And our faith is not in vain, for “Behold, from the sod/Comes the blessed Lamb of God/Who was slain, but is risen again.”

Click here for information on the album His Folkway Years 1963-1968 of which this song is included.